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Metal Fabrication – 5 Steps to Choosing the Right Glove

What’s your most common question about metal stamping? If we had to guess, we’d say it revolves around glove selection. There are a lot of glove options out there – but not all of them are suitable for safe metal stamping. Don’t go by looks… go by performance and proven capabilities. (Sort of like choosing your lab partner in science class).

Superior has maintained a strong relationship with the steel industry since the early 1960s. We have worked together to develop many styles over the years, using industry feedback to take our products from good to excellent. Through end-user trials, we’ve kept pace with the changing demands of this industry, resulting in some of our bestselling styles. With this comes a great amount of knowledge about glove selection for this industry.

Robert Gheesling is a US Territory Sales Rep with Superior who has tremendous experience working with metal stamping applications. We asked him to put together some tips for you.

We worked hard to figure out how to properly select gloves so you wouldn’t have to. Follow the selection tips below to help guide your search.

Choosing a glove for a metal stamping factory.

1. Start with gloves rated a minimum ASTM – F1790 cut-level 4

Unless you are stamping really small parts (less than 3 lbs.) you need an ASTM – F1790 cut-level 4 glove. Remember the EN388 standard is used in other countries and not in the USA. There is not a direct correlation between the two. Make sure you get the ASTM – F1790 gram rating.

Robert recommends a minimum of about 2000 grams cut resistance according to ASTM – F1790. There are a lot of gloves out there in the 1500-1700 gram range, but these tend not to offer enough cut protection in most stamping applications.

Examples include styles like these:

2. Check the abrasion resistance.

Once you’ve narrowed your selection to gloves with at least 2000 grams cut resistance, don’t get hung up on the cut resistance numbers. A glove with 2700 grams cut is not necessarily better than a glove with 2200 grams cut. At this point, you should look at the abrasion resistance numbers and reference ASTM D3389-94 (1999).

Robert recommends getting the abrasion tests from an independent lab or at least tested at the same lab, as there is too much variation from lab to lab.

3. Go for a 7-gauge glove.

Most metal stamping equipment leaves some burrs on the metal, which poses a metal poke hazard.

Robert recommends a glove that isn’t too thin, 13-gauge and often even 10-gauge gloves don’t provide enough protection, a 7-gauge glove is preferable. If the burrs on the edge of the metal are really bad, try a glove with a leather palm, a foam nitrile coating or even a terrycloth style to provide even more protection from the metal burrs.

Examples include styles like these:

4. Test a few different gloves.

Select a few gloves (two to three preferably, any more than that can mean you haven’t done your homework in the previous steps and the process gets too complicated) and do a glove trial! This will help determine how long the gloves actually last.

Robert recommends determining your cost per use for each glove. Don’t be fooled!
The chart below demonstrates how significantly protection level is affected by abrasion.

5. Bonus Tip.

Just because we care.

Robert recommends not using leather gloves (without a cut-resistant liner) for metal stamping. On its own, leather is not very cut resistant. When it is soaked in metal stamping oil, the cut resistance continues to drop, providing even less protection over time. With so many options available beyond leather, you’re better off following the steps above to find the best glove for your use.

Leave comments below to let us know what you look for when choosing a metal stamping glove.

Share Your Comments

Reader Comments

Good idea, good suggestion but in my experience it’s a bit simplistic and misguided.
First of all in the market the ASTM or EN cut performances are often fake and does not correspond to the real glove performances, this often because the supplier of the manufacturer (the real one that make the glove, often in Asia) cheats and the product is not tested on a regular basis. So a large metal fab company should, as recommended by Robert, test the gloves from an independent lab (not from the same that issue the certification for obvious reasons).
Secondly because, for a correct glove selection within the metal fab application, need first to be separated between dry and oily ones, where different gloves are needed to address the protection needs.
A complete comparison website (mainly EU) is: http://www.radargloves.com/en/

Federico, you are correct that you should be careful regarding ANSI and EN information from overseas, as sometimes this information can be 3-5 years old and they may have made some minor changes to the material to make the glove or sleeve. I am not sure I would go as far to say they cheat, but sometimes the information is not kept up to date. This is a good reason to deal with a manufacture who actually makes their product instead of sourcing it out.
One should always remember that all the testing, EN and ANSI, are done in a lab setting and it is always a good idea to test the glove or sleeve in the actual field situation to make sure the product performs to meet your requirements.

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